Poll: Replace the Entire Congress

A new Rasmussen poll released October 5 revealed that if voters could dump all members of the House of Representatives and Senate, they would.

When respondents were asked the question about keeping or replacing the entire Congress, Rasmussen says, "...59% of voters would like to throw them all out and start over again." Only 17 percent of respondents said they would keep current congressional members in Washington.

Now, the number wanting to replace the entire congress is not quite as high as I would have expected. The latest numbers from Real Clear Politics show just a 17.8 percent approval rating for Congress. That's even lower than President George W. Bush's 26.3 percent. Another Rasmussen poll showed that only 11 percent of voters thought Congress was doing okay. It seems the American public doesn't have a lot of confidence in the folks elected to the House and Senate.

According to Rasmussen, only 23 percent of respondents "...have even a little confidence in the ability of Congress to deal with the nation's economic problems..." and less than a quarter, 24 percent, "...believe most Members of Congress understand legislation before they vote on it." The perfect example of this, as noted by Rasmussen, is last week's financial bailout bill, supported by both presidential candidates. According to Rasmussen, "While the bill survived Washington, it did so at a time when just 30% of voters favored it and 45% were opposed."

And here's where the poll results get entertaining. Rasmussen says "Only half (49%) believe that the current Congress is better than individuals selected at random from the phone book. Thirty-three percent (33%) believe a randomly selected group of Americans could do a better job and 19% are not sure."

The really sad part: election rules are structured to favor those already in office, so most of the guys and gals frowned upon in the survey results will likely keep their jobs. In fact, Rasmussen says "...more than 90% of Congress is likely to be elected this November due to an electoral system designed to benefit incumbents."

In asking about congressional pay, Rasmussen found that 49 percent of respondents think Congressional members are overpaid. Only 5 percent thought they were underpaid. Again, the bad news: they get to vote on their own pay.

Here's how the party affiliation breakdown turned out. A full 74 percent of Republicans would vote out the Congress, while only 43 percent of Democrats would. Of course, that's no doubt because Democrats control the congress. Unaffiliated respondents came in at 62 percent in favor of getting rid of the entire congress.